What does Google say about SEO?

Does Google Really Render Every Page Before Indexing It?

Martin Splitt Sep 05, 2023 ★★★

On X, Martin Splitt stated that if a page had been indexed, it meant that it had undergone rendering. The Google Search Relations team member also added that this applied to all pages, with the exception of those that may pose a problem, such as 4XX/...

Domain Age & History Content Crawl & Indexing AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO

Should You Slow Down Your Page Load Time to Boost Your SEO?

John Mueller Sep 05, 2023 ★★★

On LinkedIn, Liam Fallen published a joke about a myth that Google has debunked numerous times: "If your site loads too fast... consider slowing it down. Why? Users will have to wait longer for your pages to load. Time spent on the website is a Googl...

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Web Performance Social Media

Does Your Business Email Domain Actually Affect Your Google Rankings?

John Mueller Sep 05, 2023 ★★★

On Reddit, John Mueller stated that using business emails with a different domain name has no impact on a website's search engine rankings.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO JavaScript & Technical SEO Domain Name

Should you really choose redirects based on SEO impact or technical logic?

John Mueller Aug 31, 2023 ★★★

Google recommends using the type of redirect that is technically correct for your use case, rather than choosing based on supposed SEO impact. The choice should be based on technical criteria and not on PageRank considerations.

Domain Age & History Content Links & Backlinks Redirects

Should you really be using 307 and 308 redirects for SEO?

John Mueller Aug 31, 2023 ★★

In addition to 301 and 302 redirects, the 307 and 308 types are also valid options you can use. All these types of HTTP redirects are properly supported by Google's search engines.

HTTPS & Security Redirects

Should you really worry about the SEO impact of redirects?

John Mueller Aug 31, 2023 ★★

Search engines have been processing redirects since their earliest days and are therefore perfectly capable of handling them correctly. There is no reason to worry about their impact on SEO if they are used appropriately.

AI & SEO Redirects

Do 302 redirects really hurt your search rankings?

John Mueller Aug 31, 2023 ★★★

Contrary to what some SEO professionals may claim, 302 redirects are not bad for search engine optimization. This belief is an SEO myth that needs to be corrected, as Google handles this type of redirect properly.

AI & SEO Redirects

Do 301 and 302 redirects really transmit the same amount of PageRank?

John Mueller Aug 31, 2023 ★★★

There is no difference between 301 and 302 redirects in terms of PageRank transmission. Both types of redirects are treated the same way by Google regarding PageRank, so you shouldn't worry about the impact on your search rankings.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Links & Backlinks Redirects

Should You Create Internal Links Pointing to the Page Itself to Boost SEO?

John Mueller Aug 29, 2023 ★★★

On Mastodon, Sina Afkham asked whether internal links on a page pointing to itself carried more weight or provided additional context to the page. John Mueller responded that he didn't think this added any information.

Domain Age & History Content AI & SEO Links & Backlinks

Does Your Page Really Need to Rank on Page One to Win a Featured Snippet?

John Mueller Aug 29, 2023 ★

John Mueller stated that there is no rule for appearing as a Featured Snippet, and that the page does not need to be on the first page. Any page can be eligible, according to him.

Domain Age & History Content Featured Snippets & SERP AI & SEO

Are Core Web Vitals really a UX diagnostic tool or just another ranking factor in disguise?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★

Core Web Vitals provide a useful way to identify challenges that users may encounter when they're on your pages.

Domain Age & History Web Performance

Does Google really rank pages based on how real users actually experience them?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★★

It's important to remember that these metrics come from real user data, meaning actual people using your website in the real world.

Why does Google rely on lab data to debug SEO issues—and should you?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★

When debugging, we can get a rough idea of what might be causing problems by examining laboratory data. This is data that we can create and measure using our own devices.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Is Lighthouse really the gold standard tool for diagnosing performance issues?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★

To begin your debugging process, it makes sense to get a first impression of your current status by using Lighthouse in Chrome's developer tools.

Domain Age & History Web Performance Search Console

Why can't Lighthouse actually measure how responsive your site really is to users?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★★

Responsiveness metrics — FID or INP — are field metrics and cannot truly be captured by Lighthouse. Instead, we use Total Blocking Time as an approximate indicator.

AI & SEO Web Performance

Why isn't Lighthouse catching all your Core Web Vitals issues?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★★

Lighthouse focuses on the performance of your initial page load. This means it doesn't capture responsiveness issues or layout shifts that occur during page interactions.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Why is Chrome DevTools Performance panel a game-changer for debugging Core Web Vitals?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★★

The big difference with Lighthouse is that you can record performance during interactions with the page, and thus discover more easily responsiveness issues or layout shifts.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO Web Performance Search Console

Can lab data really replace field data for optimizing your website's user experience?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★

While field data remains essential for measuring the real experience of users on your sites, we have many tools available to identify issues using only lab data.

AI & SEO

Should you really test Core Web Vitals in the lab before going live?

Google Aug 29, 2023 ★★★

The major advantage of lab data is that we can do it during development, and as a continuous process to identify issues as they occur, rather than deploying something broken and then looking for a corrective solution afterward.

Domain Age & History AI & SEO

Do Semantic HTML Tags Really Improve Your SEO Rankings?

John Mueller Aug 22, 2023 ★★★

Someone asked John Mueller whether using an HTML article tag had an impact on Google. His response: "The HTML article tag has no particular effect on Google. The same goes for many HTML tags. Using these tags should not be limited to SEO! A certain t...

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